294 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



way across the plains, they do not equal in size and 

 number those found here. They are a curious insect, 

 and most industriously prosecute their work, which is that 

 of collecting the dung of cattle, &c., and forming it into a 

 round mass about the size of a lawn tennis ball. When 

 this is accomplished they roll it off to a suitable place, 

 where they bury it, after having deposited their Iarva3 

 in its interior. The beetle when shoving its load over 

 the ground does so with its head down. 



Soon after sunrise we passed through between two 

 ridges of hills, covered with vegetation on their southern 

 slopes, although they appeared an immense jumble of 

 loose stone, and destitute of soil, trees were to be seen 

 almost to their summit. Both these ridges, I should 

 imagine, rose to an elevation of fourteen or fifteen 

 hundred feet, and the formation is a reddish decayed 

 sandstone. Here the Macalaca shot a hartebeest, or 

 kama, the first thing I believe he has killed since the 

 bullock fell before his gun. 



But although we have been progressing slowly we 

 are still moving on, and at length the gap is passed, an 

 immense plain opens before us, margined on one side by 

 the Bamanwatto hills, on the other by the Kalahari 

 Desert, or Great Thirst-Land, which does not terminate 

 till the doons are reached that are bathed by the South 

 Atlantic Ocean. 



A large white house, the go-down or hong of the 

 principal traders in Soshong, marks the site of the town, 

 which still must be ten or twelve miles off. However, 

 there can be no halt now till we reach it, for the cattle 

 are suffering terribly from want of water, and none can 

 be obtained till we get there. 



In time we wind round the base of a very picturesque 



